“I will stand upon my
watch, and set me upon
the tower, and will watch to see what He will say unto me,
and what I shall
answer when I am reproved.

And the Lord answered
me, and said,Write
the vision, and make it plain
upon tables, that he may run that readeth it.

For the vision is yet for an appointed
time, but at the
end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry,
wait for it;because
it will surely come, it will not tarry.

Behold, his soul which is lifted up is
not upright in him:
but the just shall live by his faith.”

Habakkuk 2:1-4

INTRODUCTION

Dear
beloved brother,

In
answer to your email, I most certainly agree with you that the
topic of the
Rapture of God’s people is being discussed and hotly
debated today, both
pro and con, more than at any time I can remember since
1988.I
have no idea how old you were in 1988 and
whether you remember what occurred that year or not, so I’ll
just give you a quick
review.

THE BACKGROUND

It
was in 1988 that Ed Whisenant, a former
NASA Engineer [a
dedicated Christian
believer], studied this prophecy in Habakkuk, and
other related
prophecies, and recognized it as a prophecy of the Lord’s
return to resurrect
and rapture His people to glory at the end of this age,
Hebrews
10:35-39.That brother, having “read” this
prophecy in Habakkuk
and knowing that the nation of Israel was 40 years old
that year, began
to “run”
with the “vision” of the return of Christ.Isn’t that exactly
what this Scripture says
that those who “readeth…..the vision” are supposed to
do?He read
the “vision” and
ran with
it!Well…??

Out
of that brother’s commitment to
“run” with the
“vision” given
to the
prophet Habakkuk some 2,600 years ago, came what is still
referred to today as
the “Rapture 88” movement.During that
movement the attention of millions of people all over the
earth was awakened to
the truth of the return of Christ and the resurrection and
rapture of true
believers.Thousands
of lost people did
take the matter seriously enough to start seeking the Lord for
salvation.It is
conservatively estimated, based on
reports from many different pastors, churches, and ministries
at that time,
that as many as 150,000 people came to a saving
knowledge of Christ
during the “Rapture 88” movement.I
personally had over 400 people call me on the phone afterRosh HaShanah, 1988,some of them in
tears, rejoicing and praising
the Lord for the “Rapture 88” movement, for during that
movement they had
finally been exposed to the gospel of Christ and the way of
salvation and had
been saved.There
is no question in my
mind, and in the minds of many who were saved, that the
“Rapture 88” movement
was the greatest “movement of God” to occur during the
20th
century.

Yes,
I am well aware that some do not
share my opinion or feelings about the “Rapture 88” movement.
I couldn’t care
less!Right
to this day there are still some “Christians” [??] who are so filled with anger and bitterness,
and who have no
forgiveness in their hearts,
that after all of these years all they do is “look back” and
condemn and spue
out their venom on everyone that had any part in that
movement.Brother,
that was 23 years ago.That sure is a long time for a genuine “Christian”
believer [??] to be
loaded down with
the burden of anger and bitterness and un-forgiveness.

It reminds
me of the healing of the blind man in John
9.While
the man that had been born
blind rejoiced and praised the Lord that he could finally see,
and had come to
know the Lord as his own personal Savior, all the wicked
Pharisees and other
assorted “religionists” could do was criticize and find fault
because
everything hadn’t

1

been
done just
exactly like they thought it ought to have been done.God have mercy
on such callous, hard hearted,
mean spirited, un-forgiving hypocrites.

Instead
of rejoicing over the thousands of
souls who came to a saving knowledge of Christ during the
“Rapture 88”
movement, after 23 years all some today can still do
is spew out their
anger and bitterness.May
our gracious
Lord have more mercy on their souls than they have shown for
others.

I
personally have nothing but pity for
such pathetic people who obviously think they are living
“infallible” lives and
are totally above error or even outright sin.The Lord Himself explicitly, “For if ye forgive
men their
trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.But if ye forgive
not men their
trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your
trespasses,” Matthew
6:14-15.The
inspired Word also
explicitly commands God’s people, “…forgetting those
things which are behind,
and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I
press toward the mark
for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus,”
Philippians
3:13-14.The
Lord Jesus Christ
put all of our sins under His own precious blood, forgiving us
all our
trespasses and outright sins, yet some today are so “filled
with themselves”
that they have neither the grace nor the love of Christ to
forgive a brother or
sister whom they feel has erred, and then just simply
move on.Pathetic!The last time I checked John 13:34-35 is
still in the
Bible!So is Matthew 7:1-5.

THE PROGRESS OF
HABAKKUK’S VISION

The
“Rapture 88” movement occurred 23
years ago.“23”
is the Bible number
associated with the doctrines of “death
and destruction.”Now look
around and see for yourself what humanity is staring in the
face RIGHT
NOW!Certainly
the Lord didn’t come in
1988.Therefore
lots of Scripturally
illiterate people labeled the entire “Rapture 88”
movement A LIE!Many
“professing Christians” drew back
from Bible prophecy and discarded their former claim of
believing in the
Pre-tribulation Rapture, exactly as predicted in both Habakkuk 2:4
and Hebrews
10:38-39.Isn’t
this amazing?Yet
some who claim to be “Christians” today
don’t even believe that the
Scriptures are the Divinely Inspired Word of God.Sick!

Throughout
these past 23 years the
Lord has been using the teaching of the Pre-tribulation
rapture to separate His
faithful New Covenant believers [His true
church] from the church going, bench warming, Laodicean
“religionists”
who have infiltrated the
churches and are busy, busy, busy, spreading their “damnable
heresies” among
the ranks of Christianity today, 2 Peter 2:1-2.

After
the Lord did not come in 1988, only
the faithful continued to believe in the Lord’s literal,
bodily, visible,
return to resurrect and rapture true New Covenant believers to
glory before
the swiftly approaching terrible Tribulation period, exactly
as the Lord
Himself promised in Revelation
3:10.Many
of the “Scripturally
illiterate” as well as those who fancy themselves to be
spiritual
“intellectuals” [Romans
12:3; 1
Corinthians 1:26; 8:2; Galatians 6:3; 1 Peter 5:5-6],
who felt that they
had been “humiliated” by the failure of the “Rapture 88”
movement [Tsk! Tsk!],
“lifted up” their
hearts
in pride exactly as predicted in Habakkuk 2:4 and
Hebrews
10:38-39, rejected the whole subject of Bible
prophecy and the rapture,
and went chasing off after numerous totally unscriptural
theories and
practices.See
my Bible study, “Broken
Cisterns.”I’ll
be glad to send the study to any
reader upon request.

The
Scriptural teaching of the
Pre-tribulation rapture is still separating today between
those who truly
believe

what
God’s Word
actually and literally says and teaches, and those “vain
professors” who place
more value on their own theories and opinions and “feelings”
than they do on
the inspired Word of God.

EXAMINING THE
VISION

But
dear brother, look again at the
passage in Habakkuk 2:3.This
passage explicitly states, “For the vision is yet [still] for an
appointed time [a set time; holy day], but
at the end it shall speak [as
it spoke in 1988], and not lie
[will not be a lie!]: though it
tarry [hesitates], wait for
it; because it [He] will surely come, it [He] will not tarry [delay].”This
exact verse is
transliterated in Hebrews 10:37, where it is clearly
speaking of the coming of
the Lord Jesus Christ.I
have not
added a thing to these Scriptures in any way, but rather have
taken them at
face value for

2

exactly
what they
actually and literally say in the Hebrew text of the Old
Testament and the
Greek text of the New Testament.Check this
out for yourself with your own Concordance or Lexicon!

I
would point out that the two English
words translated as “tarry” in this passage in Habakkuk 2:3 are
translated from two
entirely different Hebrew words.The first occurrence in the verse is translated from
the Hebrew word, “mahah.”This word literally means, “to
wait; delay; linger; hesitate.”Strong’s
No. 4102.This is
exactly what occurred
in 1988.At that
time the Lord “hesitated”
to come for a number of
reasons, foremost among them being set forth in 2 Peter 3:9,
“The Lord is not
slack concerning His promise, as some men count slackness;
but is
long-suffering to us-ward, not willing that any should
perish, but that all
should come to repentance.”These
passages, 2 Peter 3:9,Habakkuk 2:3,
and Hebrews
10:37 make it clear that the Lord graciously
extended to mankind a time
of “long-suffering”
between 1988 and the present time.As the passage in Hebrews 10:37 words
it, “a
little while…”

The
second Hebrew word translated as “tarry”
in Habakkuk 2:3 is the word, “ahar.”This word
literally means, “delay;
to come late; to tarry.”Strong’s No. 309.Now notice that the statement or sentence
explicitly states that “it [He]will not tarry.”Compare
Hebrews
10:37.The Lord is coming right
at the exact
appointed time without

any“delay”.He
will not be a minute late! PERIOD!Praise the
Lord!

WAS THE “RAPTURE 88” MOVEMENT A
LIE?

In
view of the exact wording of this
passage in Habakkuk 2:3, how could the
“Rapture 88” movement have
been a lie when the whole movement was predicted right
here in the
inspired Word in exact detail some 2,600 years in advance?Well…??

It
is clearly predicted in 2:2 that
some unnamed person living at or towards “the end” would
“read…the
vision” and then would “run” with it.Isn’t that exactly
what happened in
1988?Don’t “hem
or haw” around!Just
answer the question honestly.Then 2:3 explicitly
predicts that after
the unnamed person had “run” with “the vision” there
would
be a delay; a
period of time between
the “running” and “the end.”This
is
exactly to the letter what has happened.Now how can anyone with spiritual discernment above
that of a goose
label the “Rapture 88” movement as a lie when the Lord
Himself predicted
it in exact detail in this vision given to His prophet
Habakkuk some
2,600 years in advance?Hello!Speak up!I’m not hearing your answer!Is
the truth of God’s Word choking in your throat?I would
suggest that perhaps some
“Christians” need to seriously study more and run their mouth
less.1 Thessalonians 4:11 is
still in the
Bible too!

But now the period of
“delay” is almost up and
the Lord is coming at any minute of any day now.How do I know?I’m so glad you
asked…..

THE VISION IS SPEAKING!

Brother,
you are absolutely correct in
saying that the major topic of conversation among real Bible
believing
Christians today is the rapture of God’s people.This has been true
throughout this entire past
year of 2011! As
each day of 2011 passed
progressing towards the end of the year, the discussion about
and anticipation
of the rapture among true believers increased daily.There is more
discussion and anticipation of
the rapture today than at any time since 1988.This is
exactly as predicted.The “vision” the
Lord gave to
His prophet Habakkuk, is speaking again, exactly as
predicted in Habakkuk
2:3.There
is no way this is
“coincidence!”The
coming of our Lord to
resurrect and rapture His New Covenant believers [“the just shall live by his faith,” 2:4] to
glory is right at
the door.Praise
the Lord!Hallelujah!Glory to God!

Notice
carefully that this inspired
Scripture explicitly states that when “the vision” speaks
[again] “at the end” it
will
not be a lie!It
will happen!The
Lord will come for His people!We are in that “time frame” RIGHT NOW!No, I do not
know the “date,” but I
do know what these Scriptures explicitly state, and I
do know that
the major topic of conversation and anticipation among true
believers today is the
coming of the Lord to rapture His people to glory.Oh glory to God!Hallelujah!Praise the Lord!He
is coming!It
doesn’t matter how many people deny this
truth or rail against it or try to explain it away.Our Lord is coming
to “deliver us
from this present
evil world, according to the will of God and our
Father,” Galatians
1:4.Praise
the Lord!

3

2012
will be the greatest year for
New Covenant believers in this entire “dispensation of
grace,” and in the
lives of every true believer living today,for this
is the year we are
going “HOME!”Hallelujah!Glory to God!Praise the Lord!Thank you Lord Jesus!

God
bless you dear brother.I’ll
meet you and sister _______ in glory
REAL SOON.Hallelujah!Praise the Lord!Glory to God!Please keep me
in your prayers.In
the love of Christ Jesus our precious
Savior and Lord.

Pastor F.
M. Riley

“Even so,
come, Lord Jesus,” Revelation 22:20.

<<<<<<<O>>>>>>>

Permission is granted to any true
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